Learning from Noah
There's been so much going on in the last few days it'll be hard to get it all in one post. But I'll try.
Work has been totally stressful. Part of it has been my righteous indignation at the treatment of my peers. It may have resulted in some snotty sounding emails to one of my new staff (with my new boss copied in) in Schenectady. Thursday evening I checked my work email while sitting at karate with the boys (hey, it's good laptop time) and there was a meeting request with just me and the new boss "to discuss my project management roll/status of the Windows XP rollout in Schenectady". Oops. That either meant that I was taking over the project instead of sharing responsibility, or I had gone to far and was going to get my ass chewed. More in a moment.
Friday morning, I had an email in my personal email account that had "Everything I need to know I learned from Noah". It was cute stuff I'd seen before, but one thing jumped out at me: Number 5 was "Don't listen to critics: just get on with the job that needs to be done." That became my mantra for the day. And it made a difference. I started making some calls and talking to people and doing my usual thing to get things done, namely, ask for a favor and try and cut through the red tape. As for that call with the new boss, he cancelled it as a previous meeting went long. He later scheduled a new meeting with myself and another supervisor for next week. I called and left a message asking if there was anything we needed to discuss prior to that meeting and he emailed me back saying nothing big that couldn't wait until next week. Sounds like crisis averted.
The rest of the weekend has been crazy, but oddly satisfying. We got almost no housework done since we were so busy, but no big deal there. Saturday morning the boys competed in their first karate tournament. The both competed in a kata competition. Maverick placed first in his division, which made him proud. Of course, the announced the placement's in Grasshopper's division next. He too placed first! I was proud and relieved. If Maverick came in first and Grasshopper did not, I would have never heard the end of it.
Maverick also competed in the sparring competition but Grasshopper did not. I brought Grasshopper home and went back to the competition. Maverick did well, but a couple of his matches were more brawls that actual karate. One kid just kept swinging haymakers and there was little control on any of the younger kids. One of Grasshoppers best buds took a clean (but hard) roundhouse kick to the nose and just dropped. No blood and the other kid was disqualified for the match, but there was a lot of kids of all ages taking shots, low blows, and fingers in the eye that were not meant but hurt none the less. Maverick came in third in his group, which was great considering it was his first time.
While I was at the tournament with Maverick, the Wife took Grasshopper to the animal shelter to look at dogs. And found what may be the perfect dog. A beagle mix that was very mellow, incredibly well behaved, and very sweet. They'd gotten the dog the day before, and it will be available for adoption on Wednesday at 2 pm. Sound to good to be true? Perhaps it is. She's number 4 in line. So persons 1 to 3 have dibs if they show up on Wednesday as well. She's not sure if we'll get the dog or not. I suggested either bringing a really big friend to scare away the other three people or using the sob story about her autistic child and how this is the only dog she's been able to find that is good with him, etc. She wasn't hip on either idea. So we'll see what happens.
Later that evening we went to my cousin's house for his daughter's 30th birthday. It was a nice (if crowded) affair. My cousin (the one having the birthday) lives in Augusta, GA. Her husband is in the Army and deployed in Iraq. He's home for 2 weeks so we got to see him. He's one of the soldiers that got screwed when people got extended. He was supposed to be out of the Army last month, but now he's getting out like next March. They're not happy about it but what can you do? It's one thing to hear about it happening to soldiers, it's something else when it's family. He's done his duty and paid his commitment to the Army. He should be able to go home when his contract was up with them.
Today's been a fairly mellow Mother's Day. After church, we went to some sporting goods stores to look for camping stuff for Maverick for Boy Scout camp. We looked at backpacks, water bottles, and sleeping bags. We did pick up a cool water bottle for him, but are still looking at the backpacks and sleeping bags. We ran another errand or two before going to my mom's for dinner (true Italian dinner, we ate at 2 pm). After that, we basically came home. Maverick got himself a new driver at the sporting goods store, so he and I went to the driving range to let him work with it. He was hitting some practice balls at home and was getting very discouraged. I figured he needed to hit some real balls with it. He felt much better by the time we were done. The Wife didn't have to do too much today. Which is good because she's fighting a sinus something or other so it's been wearing her out a little.
Anyway, as you can see, things are pretty normal around here. I'm going to kick back now and just jam on the guitar a little while the Wife watches Desperate Housewives.
Work has been totally stressful. Part of it has been my righteous indignation at the treatment of my peers. It may have resulted in some snotty sounding emails to one of my new staff (with my new boss copied in) in Schenectady. Thursday evening I checked my work email while sitting at karate with the boys (hey, it's good laptop time) and there was a meeting request with just me and the new boss "to discuss my project management roll/status of the Windows XP rollout in Schenectady". Oops. That either meant that I was taking over the project instead of sharing responsibility, or I had gone to far and was going to get my ass chewed. More in a moment.
Friday morning, I had an email in my personal email account that had "Everything I need to know I learned from Noah". It was cute stuff I'd seen before, but one thing jumped out at me: Number 5 was "Don't listen to critics: just get on with the job that needs to be done." That became my mantra for the day. And it made a difference. I started making some calls and talking to people and doing my usual thing to get things done, namely, ask for a favor and try and cut through the red tape. As for that call with the new boss, he cancelled it as a previous meeting went long. He later scheduled a new meeting with myself and another supervisor for next week. I called and left a message asking if there was anything we needed to discuss prior to that meeting and he emailed me back saying nothing big that couldn't wait until next week. Sounds like crisis averted.
The rest of the weekend has been crazy, but oddly satisfying. We got almost no housework done since we were so busy, but no big deal there. Saturday morning the boys competed in their first karate tournament. The both competed in a kata competition. Maverick placed first in his division, which made him proud. Of course, the announced the placement's in Grasshopper's division next. He too placed first! I was proud and relieved. If Maverick came in first and Grasshopper did not, I would have never heard the end of it.
Maverick also competed in the sparring competition but Grasshopper did not. I brought Grasshopper home and went back to the competition. Maverick did well, but a couple of his matches were more brawls that actual karate. One kid just kept swinging haymakers and there was little control on any of the younger kids. One of Grasshoppers best buds took a clean (but hard) roundhouse kick to the nose and just dropped. No blood and the other kid was disqualified for the match, but there was a lot of kids of all ages taking shots, low blows, and fingers in the eye that were not meant but hurt none the less. Maverick came in third in his group, which was great considering it was his first time.
While I was at the tournament with Maverick, the Wife took Grasshopper to the animal shelter to look at dogs. And found what may be the perfect dog. A beagle mix that was very mellow, incredibly well behaved, and very sweet. They'd gotten the dog the day before, and it will be available for adoption on Wednesday at 2 pm. Sound to good to be true? Perhaps it is. She's number 4 in line. So persons 1 to 3 have dibs if they show up on Wednesday as well. She's not sure if we'll get the dog or not. I suggested either bringing a really big friend to scare away the other three people or using the sob story about her autistic child and how this is the only dog she's been able to find that is good with him, etc. She wasn't hip on either idea. So we'll see what happens.
Later that evening we went to my cousin's house for his daughter's 30th birthday. It was a nice (if crowded) affair. My cousin (the one having the birthday) lives in Augusta, GA. Her husband is in the Army and deployed in Iraq. He's home for 2 weeks so we got to see him. He's one of the soldiers that got screwed when people got extended. He was supposed to be out of the Army last month, but now he's getting out like next March. They're not happy about it but what can you do? It's one thing to hear about it happening to soldiers, it's something else when it's family. He's done his duty and paid his commitment to the Army. He should be able to go home when his contract was up with them.
Today's been a fairly mellow Mother's Day. After church, we went to some sporting goods stores to look for camping stuff for Maverick for Boy Scout camp. We looked at backpacks, water bottles, and sleeping bags. We did pick up a cool water bottle for him, but are still looking at the backpacks and sleeping bags. We ran another errand or two before going to my mom's for dinner (true Italian dinner, we ate at 2 pm). After that, we basically came home. Maverick got himself a new driver at the sporting goods store, so he and I went to the driving range to let him work with it. He was hitting some practice balls at home and was getting very discouraged. I figured he needed to hit some real balls with it. He felt much better by the time we were done. The Wife didn't have to do too much today. Which is good because she's fighting a sinus something or other so it's been wearing her out a little.
Anyway, as you can see, things are pretty normal around here. I'm going to kick back now and just jam on the guitar a little while the Wife watches Desperate Housewives.
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